Fast radiochemical extraction of carbon in photoactivation analysis of pure boron

Special fast procedure for radiochemical extraction of carbon impurities fr om boron samples was developed. The procedure consists of alloying the samp le in a mixture of KNO3 + KOH at 600 degrees C, dissolving of the cooled me lt in water, and subsequent distillation of CO2 from the boiling acidic sol ution of HNO3. Time span of the whole procedure equals 25 min and provides more than one thousand-fold extraction of initial carbon impurity from the boron sample. Kinetics of the carbon extraction was measured with carbon-11 radiotracers which were induced in the investigated samples by the irradia tion with 26 MeV bremsstrahlung.